Karkaroff
Karkaroff '(also known as "[[Tip Top Tet|'Tip Top Tet]]", "Nick and the Necrophiliacs", "Mikey has no Face" and formerly as "A Cynic's Conscience") is an English symphonic heavy metal formed in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, in 2017 by Ethan Smith on guitar, unclean vocals, clean vocals and occasional keys, Oscar Reynolds on guitar and clean vocals and Blake Hepworth on bass and backing vocals, before recruiting Kirsty Mckean on keyboard and clean vocals.https://www.facebook.com/pg/ACynicsConscience/about/ History Formed by ex-Unholy Messiah guitarists Ethan Smith and Oscar Reynolds in November 2016; however coming into fruition in July 2017 due to Reynold's commitments to Would You Kindly? and then Yellow Teeth; Tip Top Tet is a satirical crust punk band based around The Simpsons character Krusty the Clown. As Tip Top Tet, Reynolds and Smith hired bassist Blake Hepworth, from which they formed a less-parody driven project called "A Cynic's Conscience". There was much deliberation under the naming of the band, being named after their song "Doomsday's Disciples" for all of an hour, before deciding to incorporate a name alliteratively, with names ranging from Suicide Syndicate (which every member openly disliked), Cynic Syndicate ''and ''A Cynic's Consequence, before finally settling on A Cynic's Conscience a week later. In August 2017, the band hired keyboard player Kirsty Mckean, and then beginning to record their material not soon after in September.https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3FascBndg/?taken-by=cynconuk In December 2017, the band officially changed their name to "Karkaroff", after the head teacher of the Durmstrang Institute,' '''a fictional Scandinavian wizarding school from the ''Harry Potter novels. Musical style and influence Karkaroff label their own sound as "symphonic rock", due to their range of musical influence and style, with songs such as Goodbye Valentine being reminiscent of thrash metal with additional symphonics, Spin That Wheel and Amish Nightmare fusing garage rock and punk rock with symphonics and Shadow of a Day being alternative rock with symphonics. They commonly incorporate two guitars of rhythm and lead, with Smith primarily playing lead, however Reynolds doing so on songs such as Goodbye Valentine, sometimes including guitar harmonies. Along with a multiple vocalist approach, primarily between Reynolds and Smith, however Hepworth and especially Mckean are known to contribute to vocal duties. Reynolds, Hepworth and Mckean all contribute clean or gritty clean vocals, while Smith uses both clean and unclean vocals, along with gritty clean vocals. The band cite numerous influences from different genres, ranging from the alternative metal and punk rock of Sum 41, to the emocore of Jawbreaker, to the doo-wop infused surf punk of The Frights, to the metallic hardcore of The White Noise and Blood Youth, to the melodic death metal of Children of Bodom and Trivium, the horror punk of Creeper and the symphonic metalcore of Make Them Suffer. Many members of the band are involved in the writing of lyrics, with Smith and Reynolds co-writing Amish Nightmare and Spin That Wheel, Smith writing Shadow of a Day and Hepworth writing Goodbye Valentine. Members Ethan Smith - guitar, unclean vocals, clean vocals, keyboard (2017-present) Oscar Reynolds - guitar, clean vocals (2017-present), drums (2017) Blake Hepworth - bass, backing vocals (2017-present) Kirsty Mckean - keyboard, clean vocals (2017-present) Ben Smith - drums (2018-present) References Category:Bands Category:Bands formed 2017 Category:Thrash metal bands Category:Symphonic metal bands Category:Alternative metal bands Category:Punk rock bands Category:Unholy Messiah Category:Ethan Smith Category:Blake Hepworth Category:Oscar Reynolds Category:Kirsty Mckean